
So my story is this, I bought me my first car as well as my first 4x4 in one car because go big or go home hey? It's a 1997 Pajero Exceed 3.5 V6 GDI LWB that I got for a steal, the engine was in boxes and pieces but the car looked pretty new inside with only 135000km on the clock. Long story short I was so excited to drive it I figured screw rebuilding it myself wile still busy doing my apprenticeship and just send it to people who know what they are doing right? Ya now I have a spun con rod bearing on piston number 2 not even 1800km after rebuild.

So to save all of you the swear words my solution part consolation is simple, why go V6 if you can go V8. So i will be ditching my R20000 paper weight and building in a lexus 3UZ-FE into the car. I figured I would post my progress as well as prices/info/drawings and such on this forum to help others the way forums helped me out, so I'll post updates here as I go along with this project.
So to begin with I am still sourcing a good engine to use for this build, they range from R20000 to R23500 at the moment. Most at that price are complete with 5 speed box and ecu ( not unlocked ) but not wired to start. Some will have it wired to start for between R22000 to R26500 with unlocked ECU's ( immobilizer bypass and other magic I have yet to uncover ) and OEM fly by wire pedal and MAF sensor. You can buy little chip boards to solder in to bypass the OEM ECU or just buy a unlocked one loose. Spitronics can build you an engine or spitronics ecu unit with harness to fit your engine. From what I understand the older 3UZ's came with the 5 speed boxes and the newer ones have 6 speed boxes. Depending on the car it came from. The vvti system apparently needs the gearbox to function otherwise you will loose 10-15 kW from the engine but the engine will work just fine, I have yet to research a fix for this. The spitronics system seems to be able to run the vvti with out the box just fine. So from everything I have found so far the gist of it seems to be that the OEM ECU is more reliable and the engine runs smoother. The spitronics is easier more flexible and definitely the way to go if you want to do some DIY or boost modding. They can also provide you with software and cable on request.
I would like to use the 6 speed box in my car but I just don't think it would fit so realistically I am just going to mount it to my OEM gearbox with adapters. My engine is 6G74 GDI and my box is a V5A51 5 speed auto. Unfortunately with the whole corona virus thing I am not having a lot of luck finding a good engine ( none of them are the 6 speed box to ) in cape town and the measurements they give me for the boxes are all 730 which won't fit on paper since my box is 550 and 660 with the transfer adapter mount ( the bit in between the actual gearbox and the transfer case on a married transfer case ). But I will be looking at an engine with 5 speed box to get some info and measurements in person this weekend and the other guys are all talking about having stock by next tuesday ( customs willing ). I also need to look at the gear ratios on these boxes compared with my current mitsu box to keep a good economic cruise speed without loosing that lekker pull. Would like to have that mythical 8-11 km/l consumption

This will be my first conversion so I am by no means clever or a know it all so I will appreciate any help or corrections.
PS: Anybody need parts for there 6G74's well let me know since I'm stripping myne for spares.
https://www.gumtree.co.za/a-car-replace ... 0205955209